Mot Anomanalies

January 11, 2005

Firstly, car is a Toyota Avensis 2.0 2001 model going in for its second MOT (3 months early)....

Took my car for an MOT last Wednesday (5/1/05) to *** in Leeds. *** are a similar sort of operation to Motosave and Kwik-Fit, generally supply and fit parts cheaply (name is *'d as I don't want to be accused of slating them unnessarily). I don't think that had a bearing on the outcome of the MOT to be perfectly honest but I digress.....

MOT bloke does the usual MOT stuff but seems to be spending a lot of time studying the braking effiency of my front wheels. Eventually, he consulted his MOT testers manual and called me over. He basically said that my front brakes were out of balance by 32%, the maximum permissible being 25%. However, it wasn't this that worried him. He pointed to the MOT testers manual and explained that my footbrake was creeping. Basically, he'd kept his foot on the brake for an extended period of time and the pedal sunk down a little. Now I've experienced this myself when braking for a long period of time down a steep incline and assumed that this was quite normal with 'assisted braking'. He even went as far as citing the brakes as a 'Dangerous' fail.

I asked him what the remedy was. Firstly, he suggested that whoever had recently replaced the front pads (Motosave actually) had pushed the pistons back too fast and introduced air into the system so a brake bleed was necessary. Bull**** in my opinion but I kept schtumm. He then suggested that I would need new disks and pads. One lenghty phone call later I was given a slip of paper with the price of new front disks and pads, £250! I declined the offer and went home smarting from the shock of it!

I went to work Thursday morning and asked the missus to phone the local garage just around the corner to see if they could do me an MOT that day. Much to my surprise they could, just drop it off at 2pm on my way home from work, great. Dropped it off as promised, walked the short distance home. Phone rings at 2.45pm, "Hi, you can come and collect your car". I walk back round to the garage.....

"What's it failed on?" I ask. "Nothing, it's fine" was the response. "Do I need to pay attention to anything in the coming months?"... "No, everything is spot on".

Frankly, I only took it for the 2nd MOT because I was absolutely certain that the brakes were spot on, I know I could stand on the brake pedal at 90mph with no hands on the steering wheel and it'll stop without the slightest twitch in any direction other than straight on but my gamble paid off. It's cost me two MOT's instead of one but still far cheaper than what it would've cost had I stuck with the first garage.

I dare say a lot of people would've just accepted the first verdict and spent lots of money and I'm sure some will reply that I know bugger all about cars and my brakes really are shot but I know damned well that my brakes work properly! It's just so !Removed! annoying that certain aspects of the MOT test are still open to massive interpretation.

January 11, 2005

thast just a con but u do get garages which vary on thigs not in a bad way they just vary

January 11, 2005

Hey

I'm not questioning that your brakes work just fine, I'm sure they do .. but still .. they aren't supposed to sink down slightly when putting extended pressure on it - only when putting pressure on it and then starting the engine, is the pedal supposed to sink

So IMO the theory about air in the system aren't that far away either, how it got there is another case. Should it be the case, then one could always hope that it could be fixed as simple as a system bleed then a failing brake-cylinder - don't understand why you should put new discs and pads on it though :unsure:

January 11, 2005

The brake pedal on my 2003 TX3 sinks slightly when I move from Park to Drive.

It's always worth getting a second opinion on MOT 'failures' I've had two problems with MOT garages, one was when the exhaust on my Citroen was blowing , a High Street Kwick fit type outfit said it needed a complete new header and muffler - price £250.00, (fixed by my local garage with a new gasket for £25.00) and 'handbrake not working' on my Volkswagen - quote £150.00 - fixed by me by adjusting handbrake cable - price - free.